The 2014 Monterey Jazz Festival came to a close on Sunday at 11pm, but the music and fun lives on in our memories and newly-expanded music collections! Besides getting to experience our jazz superheroes play live, the greatest thing about the Monterey Jazz Fest is discovering new favorites. Sunday at the Mini-Amoeba tent, we had a wonderful mix of legends and soon-to-be legends signing for fans.

Jon Batiste & Stay Human brought their inspiring high-energy and humor to the Amoeba tent directly from playing the Jimmy Lyons Stage (and San Francisco's Great American Music Hall just two days prior). Peerless artistry combined with old fashioned showmanship is at the heart of Jon Batiste's musical vision, which he calls Social Music. Social Music is also the title of his full-length debut with his musical collective, Stay Human. Both the title of the album and the name of the band are telling. Virtuosic pianist Batiste transcends music genres with his modern take on American music, reviving the roots of jazz, blues and so much more yet playing it in a way that is fresh, accessible and engaging. Check out Jon Batiste & Stay Human at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on Saturday, October 4th in San Francisco.

Two-time GRAMMY-winner Marcus Miller joined us after playing the Jimmy Lyons Stage to sign his latest album, Renaissance. Miller is a multi-instrumentalist, but is primarily a world-renowned electric bassist who has worked with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Kathleen Battle to Billy Idol. Always gracious with his fans, Miller even signed one fan's bass with visible joy.

It was a big Saturday at the Mini-Amoeba tent with all-star signings from 1pm straight through to 10pm. We knew we were going to have a great day when we opened to the sounds of Red Baraat emanating from the Garden Stage just steps from the Amoeba tent and then kicked off our signings with the one, the only Herbie Hancock!

The legendary Herbie Hancock joined us to sign copies of Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project (winner of two 2011 GRAMMY Awards for Best Pop Collaboration and Best Improvised Jazz Solo) and Herbie Hancock: The Warner Bros. Years. During his illustrious career spanning five decades, he’s won 14 Grammy’s, and influenced acoustic and electronic jazz like no one else in the biz. Mr. Hancock was charming and gracious with the scores of fans who turned out to meet the great man.

Quick on the heels of the Hancock signing and their ripping set on the Garden Stage, all eight members of Brooklyn's eclectic Red Baraat sat at the Amoeba tent for a signing of their latest album, Shruggy Ji. Impossible to define by genre, Red Baraat creates a merging of hard driving North Indian bhangra rhythms with elements of jazz, go-go, brass funk, and hip-hop. You need to hear them to believe them.

Amoeba Music is back at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the Mini-Amoeba tent full of CDs and vinyl, t-shirts, books, posters, and spectacular signings with some of the shining stars of this year's festival line-up. Every day of the festival (September 19 - 21) brings a new and exciting schedule of talent to our tent.

Tonight was opening night and we were honored to welcome singer Cecile McLorin Salvant in between her sets on the Jimmy Lyons Stage and the Night Club. It was Cecile's Monterey Jazz Fest debut, but she is well-known to the fans who flocked to the Mini-Amoeba for her signing for her unique interpretations of unknown and scarcely recorded jazz and blues compositions. She also composes music and lyrics, which she sings in English, French, and Spanish. In 2012, Cecile recorded WomanChild for the Mack Avenue label with Aaron Diehl,Rodney Whitaker, Herlin Riley, and James Chirillo. WomanChild was nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Just as Cecile had to dash to her next performance, we welcomed another MJF newbie, Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana and the other two members of the Crash Trio - bassist Pablo Menares and drummer Francisco Mela. They had just wowed the audience at the Garden Stage and continued to charm their fans as they signed copies of their self-titled debut album for Concord, which features originals written by all three band members and two covers – the Harry Warren classic “You’re My Everything” and Thelonious Monk’s “Ask Me Now.”

We are very proud to once again be an official sponsor of the Monterey Jazz Festival and to be on-site with a Mini-Amoeba store! Every year we have an amazing time meeting jazz fans and seeing the world's best talent. This year's line-up is going to be one of the best yet!

The 57th annual Monterey Jazz Festival welcomes more than 500 artists performing nonstop on eight stages for three nights and two days! Come see live sets from Herbie Hancock, The Roots, Michael Feinstein, and so many more!

Swing by the Mini-Amoeba between sets for tons of rare, collectible, and out-of-print CDs and LPs for sale from our vaults. Plus, look for a host of artists who will be signing copies of their albums at our booth after their performance.

Amoeba Music once again had the honor to be an official sponsor of the Monterey Jazz Festival this past weekend (September 20 - 22nd) and to be on-site at the Monterey County Fairgrounds with a mini-Amoeba store! It was our third year in attendance, offering signings with many of the festival's most exciting acts in our Amoeba tent.

The festival, in it's 56th year, was ablaze with eight stages and 500 acts ranging from emerging artists like Roberto Fonseca and Davina & The Vagabonds, to jazz vets such as David Sanborn and Bob James,to superstars such as Gregory Porter and Ravi Coltrane. From Friday to Suday evening, we held 12 signings in the Amoeba tent and -- thanks to Monterey Jazz Festival Talent Coordinator Bennett Jackson--we even got to sit down for a few short interviews. For full coverage of each signing, check out all of our Monterey Jazz Fest blog posts HERE. Below are the highlights from our whirlwind weekend of way-out jazz signings.